Ray Collier Country Diary- Woodpigeons

Woodpigeons - 17th November 2008

Woodpigeons that breed in the Highlands and nest in woodlands, gardens and parks are sedentary and just stay in the same area for summer and winter. So the recently seen large flocks in arable areas such as Tarradale, Evanton and Leys Castle on the southern edge of Inverness are immigrants. Flying in from Scandinavia as the weather turned colder they could be seen in numbers along the east coast before breaking into smaller groups. Two thousand were counted along the east coast in Easter Ross and similar numbers were seen east of Inverness, again along the coast. Within a few days the birds had formed small groups of around 300 in the arable fields such as at Leys Castle where they shared the feeding and resting areas with up to 150 greylag geese and they are still there at the time of writing. There are advantages to being in such large groups as there are more birds to find food and more birds to see predators.
To many, the cooing of woodpigeons in spring is a sign of the warmer weather whereas to the shooting man it is a legitimate quarry not only because it damages farmers crops but also because they are difficult to shoot and make delicious eating. The winter flocks also play a major part in the success of over wintering birds of prey such as sparrowhawks, peregrines and the rare goshawks. The woodpigeon is a bulky bird being between 15 and 16 inches long and quite chubby. For some reason they also have a much larger number of feathers than most birds of similar size and young birds of prey can find this off-putting and they normally only take the breasts and leave the rest. For the same reason some gundogs find woodpigeons difficult to handle and they feel a mouthful of feathers hard to cope with and sometimes the birds are just not retrieved.
These bulky bird causes problems with the smaller birds of prey such a the sparrowhawk where the female is much larger than the male. Males can successfully handle birds up to and including blackbird size but only the female can tackle birds to the size of an adult woodpigeon. With the male and female peregrine falcon, whilst the female is noticeably larger than the male, both can take the woodpigeon. They either out fly them on level flight or fly up rapidly from below and surprise them. A more spectacular way is when they climb to a height some way away from their prey and then stoop down, as the flight is called, folding the wings to the body to increase the momentum. Peregrines that breed in the Highlands often spend their winter months along the coast feeding on sea birds. In Easter Ross along the coast there are also arable fields where the peregrine can take woodpigeons to make a change from waders and ducks.
The other bird of prey that benefits from the winter influx is the rare goshawk where both male and female are larger than the peregrine. The female is again the larger of the two and is almost the size of a buzzard. Although being a woodland bird means goshawks will try and surprise their prey they will also stoop like a peregrine although not in quite a spectacular fashion. All these birds of prey have problems with flocks of birds such as the woodpigeon as once the flock is in the air they can be confusing as to how to sort out a single bird from such a mass. This is another benefit from birds being in a flock as it can confuse a predator especially with younger more inexperienced birds.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Badgers

Badgers - 10th November 2008

This is a dangerous time of the year for badgers as in the many setts scattered throughout the Highlands young cubs are facing up to their first winter and possible food shortages. The adult badgers mating and fertilisation could have taken place at any time of the year but the implantation of the fertilised egg is delayed until December and the cubs are born in March. Further south the births may take place as early as mid January but what evidence there is of Highland badgers suggest early to mid March. When they are born the cubs have a pink skin and are covered with a silky, greyish white fur and are blind until they are about five weeks old. Weaning starts at 12 weeks old but as the cub may venture out of the sett at 8 weeks they do not venture far as they are tied to the sow for all their food. By the time the cub has emerged its hair and colour are similar to the adults. The back is greyish and the legs dark brown to black and the tail is pale. This camouflages well in the dark but the head markings are conspicuous. There are three white stripes on the head with the two side ones extending back onto the neck and the ears are small and have white tips. The cub in the photograph is about nine weeks old and was taken at a sett on the southern edge of Inverness in broad-leaved woodland.
Adults badgers in the Highlands would appear to have no natural enemies apart from humans. They are seldom killed by other animals although there have been cases involving foxes and occasionally badgers have been killed by hounds if found above ground. Even then it may be because the badger was injured in some way as a fit, adult badger is extremely strong. Hugh Miller wrote about badger pits in some public houses in Scotland where the badger was deliberately injured in some way so that the dogs let loose in the pit for sport had a better chance. Such is the strength of an adult badger. The cubs are a different matter and because of their size they are more vulnerable. During the first few weeks of their life they are left on their own for long periods and dogs such as terriers may enter the setts and kill them. Vixens and boar badgers have been known to kill them and if the sow is disturbed just after the birth of the cubs she may kill and eat them. Just occasionally small dead cubs can be found on the spoil of earth outside the sett as if the dead cub has been cleared out, sometimes with old bedding. Badger cubs have been recorded in golden eagle nests but it is likely that they had been taken as carrion but there is evidence that eagles and buzzards have taken small cubs in the late evening. Starvation just after weaning has been recorded especially if there is a dry spell when food, such as earthworms, is difficult to find and the cubs may be inexperienced in finding food if it is short.
Despite all these problems and the even greater ones affecting the adults it would appear that badgers are thriving in the Highlands and despite the horrific number of road casualties many of the clans of badgers around Inverness seem to be increasing in numbers. Some setts have been badly affected by the sprawl of urban development particularly between Inverness and Nairn and it appears that this will only get worse in the foreseeable future.

Ray Collier Country Diary- Wildlife in the winter in the Highlands

Wildlife in the winter in the Highlands - 3 November 2008

The ways that wildlife in the Highlands copes with the winter months depends on how bad the weather becomes. The dipper is a good example as these small, rotund water birds build their domed, bulky nests under bridges over rivers and wide burns. The pair that nest under one river bridge each year sometimes use one of the artificial nest boxes installed there. Intriguingly they sometimes ignore the boxes and built their own nest. Dippers feed mainly on insects and small fish so the food is there all the year round. Therefore they not only spend the winter along rivers and burns but also defend territories by singing between October and July. It is quite a melodious song and it seems strange to hear it during the winter when other birds are silent. If the river or burn partly freezes the dippers survive but if lengths get frozen over then the birds just move to the coast until the weather improves. In contrast there are two mammals and one bird that turns white so they blend in with the snow. Two, the ptarmigan and mountain hare, are found on higher ground and form part of the prey of golden eagles. The other mammal is the stoat and these can be found on the lower ground although they will hunt on higher ground on occasions. Not all the stoats in the Highlands turn white and at one time this was thought to be because the cold temperatures brought the change on. The cold does play a part but in the main it is hereditary so some stoats change to white whilst others stay brown. From tracking in the snow it has been shown that brown hares spend the day in the shelter of woodland and come out to graze at night. If the weather is severe the hares just stay in the woodland where they can dig for roots and debark trees. To a certain extent roe deer and sika deer do the same. Red deer have for a very long time been deer of open moorland but if the snow lies for a long time they will come to lower ground. All the other mammals in the strath are active throughout the winter apart from bats and hedgehogs. Even the hedgehogs will emerge if there is a mild spell any time in the winter and this can cause them problems. To wake up from hibernation takes a lot of energy and to replace it before the hedgehog goes back into hibernation is difficult. Most mammals in the Highlands such as badgers, foxes, red squirrels and pine martens store enough food to lie up and stop hunting for short periods if the weather is really bad. Even in winter most of these mammals prefer to move around at night so are difficult to see. Tracking in the snow reveals many of their secrets but conditions must be just right. The precise conditions may only occur two or three times each winter, sometimes not at all. Ideally the snow should fall just before it gets dark and form a two inch deep layer for the rest of the night with no more snow. This means that any mammals that venture forth and go on the ground are going to leave tracks. Probably the best book for identifying such tracks is "Animal Tracks and Signs" by Preben Bang and Preben Dahlstrom and Published in 2001 by Oxford University Press. Why not try tracking as you can find out so much more about the mammals in the Highlands?